Dotcrawl is a new website resource for artists, curators, students, critics and facilitators of ‘media art’ within a Scottish context. It is a platform for information dissemination, critical clarity and dialogue.

It has emerged from the practical necessity of documenting recent events focussing on electronic media, and in particular, two conferences ‘VideoArtScotland’ in 2005; ‘The Work of Media Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction’ in 2006; and a series of installations and talks under the banner of ‘Timeloop’, which focussed on video art in a German context.

The development of video art and the ‘expanded field’ in Scotland within which it resides has its origins in artists initiated activities rather than established institutional support. This history is recent and brief, and historical accounts have been sporadic through references in a thin spread of books, catalogue essays and lectures, and preceding this in the eighties and early nineties, the occasional magazine article in magazines such as Variant, Performance, and Independent Media.

To date, there has been no published anthology or critical overview of Scottish video art or experimental film. Neither is there any one source to locate its multiple origins and emerging manifestations. What is presented on this website, therefore, is the foundation for the charting of this history within the context of present artistic, critical and curatorial concerns. It is intended to enrich and complement other exercises in the field, such as the Rewind project in Dundee which looks at the first two decades of video art within a British perspective. Dotcrawl, however, sets out to construct a chronology to events in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s within a Scottish context, and sets that out within a framework of practice up to the present. It therefore aims to amplify connections that otherwise might seem disparate within the visual arts sector.
This will take time to evolve.

It is aimed that this website will be updated with new information every quarter and may feature a particular focus every quarter. It is currently constructed around the following chapters:

Events – this will list current activities and relevant exhibitions whose principle focus is on media art in Scotland. Documentation of some of the events listed here will later appear in the Archive section. Symposia and events taking place outside Scotland may also appear here.

Archive – this section includes video and audio clip documentation of relevant events. A ‘timeline’ will be posted which provides a bullet-point list of activities in creative video and experimental film from 1973 to the early ‘90s. This timeline will is not definitive and will also evolve.

Resources – this includes relevant articles available for download, plus a recommended reading list, and links relevant to any quarterly focus on the site.

Arcade – this section is Dotcrawl's presentation space for new work as well as content from the archive. It will be programmed on a quarterly basis.

Forum – this aims to generate idea’s exchange on the topics included in the site, or for general comment. This section has not yet been actived.

Blog – this will include recent postings by the site moderators and will include other events and symposia attended.

Credits:
Dotcrawl was initiated by Street Level and is being developed by Malcolm Dickson and Lindsay Perth. The online content management system has been devised by Howie Wylie.

Contents are copyright Street Level and the authors. Use of any material on this site is restricted without permission and appropriate accreditation.